Veganuary: Complete!

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I love a good monthly challenge. In January I had a go at Veganuary, a month of veganism. No meat, fish, or dairy products. The aims: 

 • get down to 72.2kg and fit back into my suit trousers

 • beat overhand chin-up record • beat underhand chin-up record 

 • beat dips record

 • beat my record for my local 5.4km running route I started the month at 79kg. 

After a month of following vegan recipes, I ended at 73.4. If I’d have just eaten a little less bread, maybe I’d have hit the target. A little less fruit. A little more water. I dunno. 

Anyway, it’s over and I’ve already treated myself to some non-vegan food. Feels good. I worked on the above targets. At the start of the month I tried each of the exercises and made notes of my achievements that time, then spent the month improving on them and trying to get closer to the PBs. I was getting somewhere, but just didn’t get close enough. 

That said, I’ve had bags of energy and sleep has been reasonably okay. The gym classes I’ve done have gone well, and I’ve felt strong and always had enough gas in the tank, so to speak. I attend a local pump class, in which we load up a bar with weights and do a lot of squats, lunges, bench press and bent over rows in time to music. I can load the bar stupidly heavy now – 3 5kg places plus a 2.5kg plate at each end of the bar for the squat track. I’m the strongest member of the class now. 

I tried a few vegan alternatives. Instead of drinking chocolate and cow’s milk, I had cocoa and oat milk. Grim. Tesco’s coconut milk was nice as a drink. Their soya yoghurt tasted like shit. Alpro’s coconut yoghurt didn’t hit the mark. 

Lots of potato and sweet potato made the month more enjoyable. The naan breads and ketchup may have cost me my weight target, though. I have a backlog of vegan recipe reviews, ready to be uploaded on upcoming Saturdays. They were interesting meals, but not favourites. 

And this is what Veganuary has been like: okay. Not exciting. Some of the recipes I followed – in Rukmini Iyer’s The Green Roasting Tin – were pleasant enough, but not that fulfilling. I just love meat. It’s my downfall. I probably won’t go full vegan again, but I will try to throw in a vegan recipe every now and then. 

Yesterday - 1st February – Veganuary was over. I had a halloumi wrap and a ton of B&M chocolate. Then I got drunk, as I’d also partook in Dry January too. No point doing Veganuary for health reasons if you’re drinking too. Staying off alcohol wasn’t anywhere near as hard as avoiding meat, fish and dairy. But even that wasn’t so difficult once you got into the swing of it. 

I’m glad a gave it a shot. You should too.